Elbrus (SEZ in the territory of the Elbrussky and Zolsky municipal districts of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic).

In December 2014 the Board of Directors of JSC NCR approved the Company’s Development Strategy for the period up to 2025. The Strategy identifies the main priorities of development of JSC NCR as the management company of the tourism cluster. It provides for several scenarios for development of the tourism cluster, based on analysis of key opportunities and risks.

The Strategy envisages the development of ski resorts in the tourism cluster according to the model of the benchmark resort, based on the practices of international companies involved in operation of ski resorts.

A benchmark resort is a growth point of the tourism cluster which ensures the functioning of the project and creates momentum to further development of the resort itself and the tourism cluster as a whole. The optimal time to create a benchmark resort is 10 years: 5 years of construction of the resort infrastructure and 5 consecutive years of development, which is why the strategic planning horizon of JSC NCR is established up to 2025.

A benchmark resort implies the achievement of the following key indicators: the tourist flow of about 350 thousand people in a season (290 thousand sold ski passes), not less than 30 km of slopes, at least 4 ski lifts, the necessary engineering and municipal infrastructure, hotel facilities for 2000-6000 beds.

In addition, a benchmark resort should ensure the operating profitability (no state subsidies for costs), the investment attractiveness of the resort (ski infrastructure growing faster than the number of beds), as well as to create tangible social and economic benefits for the region of the project.

In accordance with the Development Strategy, JSC NCR has taken the decision, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, to implement the project of the tourism cluster in two stages:

Stage 1: creation of growth points of the tourism cluster within the frames of development of the most promising sites;

Stage 2: operation of the resorts established during Stage 1 with the subsequent construction of other resorts of the tourism cluster.

Given the existing limitations of each SEZ, as well as the development potential, the Company decided to include the following resorts in the first stage of development of the tourism cluster:

all-season tourism and recreation complex Arkhyz (Arkhyz ATRC);

all-season tourism and recreation complex Elbrue (Elbrus ATRC);

all-season tourism and recreation complex Veduchi (Veduchi ATRC).

The second stage of the project assumes the consistent development of the created resorts and other projects.